Increasingly, customers for food-stuff seeds in the United States such as soy beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, etc. especially insist or require that the delivered end-product food-stuff seeds be of a “premium grade”—a grade that is visually, very nearly totally-free of included imperfectly formed (misshapen) seeds such as those seeds having flat surface areas, surface indentations and deformities, etc., and also be totally free of undersized seeds, of plant stems, rocks, stones, pellet-sized clumps of soil, and other matter. The unacceptable end product constituents are considered herein to be in the general category of “trash”.
Both longitudinally and upwardly-pitched endless belt sorting conveyor apparatus and longitudinally and transversely downwardly-pitched endless belt sorting conveyor apparatus have been used in the United States for food-stuff shape-sorting purposes but such have not achieved adequate efficiency in achieving total removal of misshapen seeds from the delivered “premium grade” end-product to thereby satisfy market quality requirements.
I have discovered that by superimposing an orbital motion (i.e., circular, elliptical, etc. motion) upon the longitudinal motion of a longitudinally and transversely tilted endless belt seed sorter apparatus both the efficiency of misshapen seed removal from raw food-stock seed and the rate of seed processing may be significantly increased. Also, I have discovered that varying the surface finish of the sorter conveyor endless belt can in some instances further enhance sorting efficiency as in the case of meeting specific minimum seed size requirements.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent during consideration of the detailed drawings, descriptions, and claims which follow.